Your Geiger counter is less useful than common sense (Mochizuki Iori’s daily column from Japan – August 14, 2011)

Mochizuki Cheshire Iori A Civil Engineer (27 years old) living in Yokohama. Also exports Japanese pop culture goods. Fukushima Diary is his daily summary of events as they unfold, also his picks from Japanese media and other social media.. Readers can catch up with him on DiaNuke.org’s Facebook group.

It has been about 5 months since 3/11.

The word of Sv or Geiger counter are becoming common, unfortunately. Just after 3/11, one of my friends overseas asked me if he could send me something. I asked him for a Geiger counter, but he didn’t even know what it was. The world has drastically changed. However, it’s about time to know what Geiger counter is, and what Sv is.

People sometimes ask me, it’s only 0.12uSv/h in Tokyo, which is lower than international average, so it must be safe. I guess they think Geiger counter is almighty. But actually not. Geiger counter is only a counter. It counts how much radiation hit the gadget in a certain time. So even if it’s 0.01uSv/h here,it might be 1.20 uSv/h in 20cm away from there.

leukemia cells

The real threat are hot particles. They come from fallout from the sky, or from the ground. They emit alpha, beta, and gamma rays though most of the Geiger counter can count only gamma rays. Even if you have whole body counter check, they can’t detect alpha rays and beta ray. The worst radioactive material plutonium emits only alpha ray, so it can’t be detected by whole body counter nor Geiger counter. When you take hot particles into your body, if it’s from food, it can be pushed out later though it takes time. However, if you breathe it into your lung, it’s over. It doesn’t come out. Especially if it’s plutonium, only 0.000052 mg of plutonium will kill you, and you can not stop it with a mask.

As a conclusion, a Geiger counter is as helpful as the Japanese government. The only way to save yourself is collect as much information as possible, and avoid any risk.

Report

[Exposure dose at Fukushima will be ignored]

Current legal limit of exposure dose for nuc workers is
50mSv/year , 100mSv in 5 years.
When a worker is involved in Fukushima,the limit is is raised to be 250mSv.
However,whistle-blower stated they actually ignore the total
exposure dose at Fukushima.When the worker goes to other plant,
and total dose is reset to be ZERO.

I was working at Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization,my job was to check safety level of nuc plants.
March in 2009,I checked Tomaru genpatsu in Hokkaido,which will be re-started soon.The test result was a “no”.The reactor is not capable to control the heat when the cooling system is damaged.
Only when I plugged control rod and add boracic acid,it worked.
I submit the result to my boss but it was turned down.They forced me to manipulate the result.
I managed to submit the result to The Nuclear Agency as original version,but the manipulating order of my boss was not issued.I claimed but they decreased his evaluation and rejected his re-employment.

In Fukushima,they held a traditional mud festival.They play valley ball in mud for some reason.Air dose was 0.20uSv/h. Attendance said,”We will have a good time,we don’t care about radiation.”
Obviously,the mud contains a lot of radioactive fallout.

People who evacuated from Fukushima to other prefectures are threatened by their companies.
They promised with their companies in Fukushima that they will come back in 6 months.
However,companies threaten them to come back sooner.There are a lot of the cases that they are fired if the workers turn it down before 6 months passed.
Ministry of health states,that’s the case of out of law.They need to talk to each other.We have nothing to do with it.

Sea pollution is spreading.
In case of that fishing industry is damaged because of Fukushima,those countries are given the law to decide the amount of compensation.
Japan might be required to pay massive sum of compensation for the sea pollution.

[Seismic assessment of Japanese nuclear agency is totally manipulated]

The chief of seismic assessment team for nuclear plants resigned to feel guilty for the national policy to manipulate seismic assessment data.

His team reviewed all the past seismic assessment data to build all the Japanese nuc plants and they found out they are very untidy.
He clearly states,Japan is the worst earthquake country,they should abandon nuclear power.